Cleveland Browns AFC North bid ends, still have playoff hopes

The Cleveland Browns needed two games to go their way in order to have a shot at the AFC North and one did not as the Bengals won against Kansas City

Heading into Week 17, the Cleveland Browns still had a shot at winning the AFC North but they needed a few things to go their way. While they needed to defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night Football, they first needed the Cincinnati Bengals to lose to the Kansas City Chiefs and also needed the Baltimore Ravens to suffer one more loss.

Baltimore ended up being dealt that defeat, ironically enough thanks to former Cleveland wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr. In a comeback effort, OBJ hauled in the game-winning touchdown as his Los Angeles Rams defeated the Ravens — giving fans in Cleveland hope that they could make a run.

Then just minutes later, the Browns hopes ran out. The Cincinnati Bengals also found themselves winning a game in comeback fashion as Evan McPherson made a 20-yard field goal as time expired to give the Bengals a 34-31 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

With the win, Cincinnati is now the AFC North champion — something not many of us saw heading into the season.

Cleveland Browns hopes not completely dead

While the Browns are out of the AFC North race, they do still technically have some life in the AFC Playoff picture. Although, that hipe is also thin.

Shortly after the win for Cincy, Jake Trotter of ESPN tweeted out that Cleveland will officially be eliminated from the postseason if the Los Angeles Chargers lose to the Denver Broncos. Then it falls on the Browns to win their final two games and continue to wish other results into existence.

Denver fell behind 7-0 early and is without starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.

Stranger things have happened though, so stay tuned.